Writing your new eBook is easy and getting it e-Published is almost just as easy. Persuading customers to pay real money for your virtual words? Now that is really the hard part. e-Authors are quickly finding that just because their work is e-Published, doesn't mean it's also profitable.

As an eBook author, you've got the skills for your very own marketing campaign handy: your creative writing talent. Whether your eBook is about gardening or gothic ghost stories, you've got enough talent to have written the book, searched out an ePublisher, and gotten your creation out there on the Web and ready to be downloaded by one and all. So keep doing what you do best and write some more!

Articles

Take time off from that new gardening guide or gothic novel and spend an afternoon writing an article about your favourite topic instead. A 700-word treatise on "how to sprinkle" or a 1,000 word vampire story will seem like child's play after writing an entire eBook, and as a result you'll have a very handy marketing tool: a brand new, original article/story to submit. Don't expect to get rich, however, no matter how many of your book marked Web sites agree to publish your article. Very few, if any, of the start up Web sites, 'zines and e-mail newsletters you'll be approaching can afford to pay you much. However, your reasons for writing the article weren't for that extra few pounds, you want exposure and that's what you'll get.

CYBER SUBMISSIONS

Take advantage of the plethora of Web sites, 'zines and e-mail newsletters out there and submit your brand new article accordingly. Run an Internet search on "gardening" or "gothic" and bookmark those sites that accept submissions from frantic freelancers like yourself. Remember you have a worldwide audience and do not just think UK.

Many of these sites conveniently allow, and indeed prefer, you to submit your article electronically. Take advantage of this fact by creating a concise query letter and then including your story underneath it in the body of the e-mail, never as an attachment. Format your submission for convenient e-mail reading by losing all of your paragraph indents and placing a single space between each paragraph instead. (Your future editor's eyes will thank you!)

BYLINES

As an added "bonus" for not paying you anything, most Web sites and zines will offer you a graciously lengthy byline. Take advantage of this fact by tacking on a low-key sales pitch for your eBook. Two or three lines is fine, and make sure to include the EXACT URL of your author's Web page at your ePublisher! This way, readers can easily click on your hyperlink and jump straight to your sales information. As an added attraction, many Web publishers allow you to keep all rights to your article or story. This, in turn, allows you to turn around and "sell" your story over and over again. While you may not exactly make money by publishing with one or more Web sites. You rack up all those handy hyperlinks.

Free Excerpts

One of the best ways to promote an eBook is to let people see some of it first-for FREE! Best-selling authors do it all the time, serialising the first several chapters of their latest releases in magazines, or often tacking on the first chapter of their upcoming book at the end of their latest paperback release. Why not follow this practice for yourself?

Run an Internet search and find several Web sites or newsletters devoted to your e-Book's genre or topic, or even on writing eBooks. Have several 1,000 word excerpts from your new eBook that can stand on their own as independent articles ready. Submit these to your chosen sites or 'zines and include a brief blurb or signature line including your name, the eBook's name, and your ePublisher's URL to accompany the article. For those sites that pay, you could even make money while promoting your new eBook at the same time!

READ THE FINE PRINT!

If at all possible, include your ePublisher's URL on your eBook cover art. This may not matter much when the cover is displayed on your own ePublisher's download page for your book, but it comes in handy when you use the cover art to represent your work on other Web sites or in printed matter.
To fit, the print may have to be small, but when you can post your cover elsewhere without a caption or the option of linking to your ePublisher's Web site, this little trick more than makes up for it.

SUNDAY SCHEDULE!

Don't forget the want and small ads. They are full of business opportunities in the making, and just because you've got a day job or are a full-time freelance writer shouldn't mean that you forget about them entirely.
Scour the Sunday paper for freelance writing opportunities, part-time editorial or copywriting positions, or simply to find contact names in your eBook's topic or genre. Offer your services to any and all comers and soon you could be making extra money AND promoting your eBook, all at the same time!

START BEFORE YOU'RE THROUGH!

Remember, this is YOUR book. Your eBOOK. The rules are different now. You can start promoting your eBook before it's even through! For instance, many search engines take weeks, if not months, to actually post your link on their Web sites. Use this down time to begin posting self-promotional articles on writer's Web sites or freelance e-zines. As soon as you've got a link or a Web credit, submit it to all the major search engines. When the eBook comes out, you'll already have this built-in material to post on your ePublisher's, or even your own, Web site.

TALK, TALK!

Call into radio talk shows on your topic (The Gardening Hour, Fiction Time, Story Show, etc.) and offer "expert" advice, with your status as an eAuthor on the subject stated loud and clear both before and after your comments. Often the show's host or producer will ask you why you are qualified to talk on the subject, and your credentials as an eAuthor on the subject come in handy at times like these. Follow up the appearance with a call to the show's producer offering to be a guest on the show! Like busy chat room moderators and overworked Web masters, radio talk show hosts, most of which work for understaffed, low paying public access or AM stations, are often in need of a little relief come show time. You might be surprised by how easy it is to get a guest spot on such shows.

YOU'VE BEEN FRAMED!

Why limit your promotional activities to your off hours? Blow up or print your eBook's cover art, in colour if possible, and frame it in your office, cubicle or broom closet at work. After all, you never know who's looking when you're not around. Everyone from colleagues to custodians could have more than a passing interest in your topic or expertise, so be sure to include your ePublisher's URL in the frame, or even on a strip of paper if it's not on your cover art, and secret sales could start adding up before you know it. Push your friends and family to do the same in their offices.

BE JUDGE-MENTAL!

Volunteer to judge a writing contest in your genre or local writers' group. Judges always get a bio and expert status at the same time. It's also a good way to network with the other professionals who are serving as judges, not to mention the folks who are running the contest. Inviting guests from your ePublisher's Web site to join the contest further solidifies your expert status as a judge, and brings smiles to the folks throwing the contest as well.

Just make sure the contest is on the up and up and that, if they do have an entry fee, it's very small and only serves to cover the cost of the prizes and publicity. There's no sense in promoting a bad contest, and attaching your name to one is a great way for your all-important credibility to suffer.

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